Guild Wars 2

Just wondering if anybody else got screwed out of their fused gauntlets… I lack the molten facility achievement, and can’t get it anymore now. Would have been in time, but the other events seemed to be bugged… badly. Took ages to complete.

I guess the gauntlets will be sold for a lot of gems? Or not at all? Either way, screwed.

A big advantage of Lyssa compared to soldier’s is that soldier’s sort of obligates youk
u to use at least two shouts. Shouts are fine, don’t get me wrong, but lyssa will give yiu more space to swap skills.

I used to have soldier, just switched to melandru. Loving it.

I’ve read through everything you wrote, but let me offer you some free advice. Try posting single suggestions, rather then a complete rework.

Single suggestions will have a better chance actually being read by anybody.

While a complete rework will probably propose quite a few balance problems in itself. For instance, your suggestion for Unsuspecting Foe is completely OP, while your suggestion for Crack Shot seems really underpowered.

Way to go on the creativeness though, let’s hope somebody else will come to the same realisation as we all have.

IMO crit damage would be better on the Arms tree, because condition builds aren’t viable anyway. But that’s not really solving the problem, I know.

Therewas a suggestion a while back on the forums here, that the 0.1% burst damage thing be changed in boon hate. That way, putting 10 into Disc would give you 1% extra damage per boon on your enemy. Awesome suggestion.

The way it is now, and has been for so long, it’s as if Anet is just ignoring it. Nobody can deny that this stat boost is completely underpowered and not worth it investing in. Look at ANY other class.

Thanks for all the answers, helped out!

If I could just get 10 more trait points…

Do they share a cooldown?

I know you can burst with say weapon set 1, and if you miss/get evaded/blinded or w/e, you keep your adrenaline but the 10sec CD does begin. However, if you change weapon sets after this, can you use your weapon set 2 burst right away?

And what if you do hit with set 1, switch, use something like signet of precision to get your adrenaline back, and burst with set 2, is that possible?

Thanks again for the great inputs. I have been tempted to use the GS as well. I just can’t get myself to truly like playing it, even though I know it’s powerful.

Lots of inspiration now, thanks!

Well that seems a lot like my old build. You use endure pain where I used Fear Me, which is a great stomp skill and generally a good escape tool.

I found it to be lacking in the damage department, though. In a good group (which is what I try to be in anyway) it can work, but 1v1 it didn’t work all too well for me.
Thanks for posting tho, I do still have my old set, and we have the exact same trait distribution. I’m just hoping for something different, that still uses the hammer..

Other builds?

Hi all!

Looking for some inspiration for a hammer build to be used in WvW. I’ve made one myself, but I’m unsure how it will fare in WvW..

Thanks!

@ Invision: I don’t think hd ssid nerf backstab or heartseeker, he just implied thet nerfing killshot while leaving BS/HS alone is kitten And I agree fully.

That being said, neither of these three moves need a nerf.

Boon hate sucks because you have to go 30 in disc for it. That means you have to do a crit build, which works better with the burst grand master trait. That one is very nice now though.

They need to change the burst damage increase if you spec discipline into boon hate.

Look at the forum.

The best suggestion I’ve heard for the useless Discipline bonus is to make it Boon Hate. So going 10 in Dis gives you 1% Boon Hate, etc.

IMO this can work fine in a group, but that’s mostly because Berserker always works fine in a group. When soloing, I can see this build being more difficult though. Good thing is that you can escape easy.

It doesn’t feel very refreshing though, it seems a pretty straight forward Bull’s Rush 100B build (talking about the WvW bit). Also, while scanning through the post, I didn’t see your choice of sigils/runes?

According to the link you provide at dulfy’s, I don’t have to do ’m all then? Just the ones to accomplish Alliance Breaker?

Thanks for the info!

How to get these gauntlets?

I know you need a Fused Gauntlets Ticket, and it has something to do with the living story ‘Flame and Frost’… but I’ve never had much of an interest in that. I do very much like this skin though, so all help appreciated.

Have fun!

Try Glamour.

15chars

Pyro gave me this build a few days ago. I just want to simply compliment on the design.

And testify. I’m not better then your average player, but I haven’t lost a SINGLE 1v1 with it…

The downsides are obvious. Mostly mobility, but also other then 1v2 this build becomes weaker quickly. Still, hands down the best dueling build I have ever played.

Well, firstoff, it’s a nice vid. What I like is that you really aren’t as insanely pro as other vid makers. The footage is easy to watch and keep up with.

Some advice on your fighting skills, try and use your sword for what it’s meant; melee. In some fights, mainly the first thief and warrior, you tend to stay in GS a bit long to my taste, as sword can be better in that setting. GS is more of an opener or closer (when they run or get distance).

Keep it up!

sbr.8170:

They say that will be released in the next batch of Ascended Gear but there is no timetable on when that will happen.

Where did they say this? And is there word on Carrion?

Linlana.8573:

The downside is that I can’t really 1vX against larger numbers anymore.

Then again, should any class be able to?

So, what, you just like to noobstomp? That’s pretty weak. I mean, it’s fun and all, but a good duel is always better. Besides, that one guy won’t screw up your noobhunt.

Really, I don’t see any reason not to help others improve. If not for them, be proud they are asking you for advice to become the noobstompingking!

Karolis.4261:

Today after i killed HS spammer like 5 times in a row he invited me to pt and asked whats my thiefs traits lol. Like if different traits would stop him from mashing HS.

Yes, it would. Spamming HS is done by two kinds of people; trolls and those that don’t know better. This guy obviously wanted to improve. Just help, why not. Gives thieves a slightly less bad rep.

The trolls are the ones that bug me. Not because it’s no fun to laugh at them, but because they incite others to call all thieves noobs. Off course, those others also fall into the same two categories as I previously mentioned, but it is annoying. You can kitten them without using 2 once, they still spam l2p.

Geiir.7603:

Third: crying about damage. I’ve seen a warrior crit for over 30k in one hit. That’s three times a thieves health pool…

Although I agree with you that people complaining about thief damage need to stop whining, this is a bit off. The warrior does NOT have a single attack that can hit as hard as the backstab from the back. Closest to this is killshot, evis is even lower then that (and like 10% less strong then BS). In fact, to my knowledge, Backstab from the back is the hardest hitting single attack in the game that isn’t an elite.

Unless your talking about hundred blades, which isn’t one hit.

Overall, comparing warrior burst to Thief burst isn’t really useful, as they do it in completely different ways. Thieves can do burst in PvP much better, whereas warriors can do the single adrenaline burst then have to recharge it (and/or wait for 10 seconds CD), or use a hard to get lucky combo to land HB, which, again, isn’t a single hit.

I agree that Torch could use a buff for PvE, but, then again, it really is a PvP focused weapon. So how to make it better without being a lil overpowered in WvW?

Because really, torch is pretty good in PvP.

Garr.1823:

Well, if u was ambushed – u are dead. Thief burst damage is really overpowered.

But If u see thief before he attack u – u have plenty of things to counter him and kill.

Really, how can you say this…? You get ambushed, if you don’t you have plenty of things to counter him and kill him, but still his damage is overpowered? If you get owned like this, then you deserve it, no matter what class stomps you.

Thief damage is not overpowered.

Garr.1823:

Even ele is not so deadly. (but ele can run away anytime =( .

Another strange remark… Off course, noobstomping is easier with the thief.

And another thing, thieves have better escape options then Ele’s.

On topic, blink is a great way to shake the initial attack of any thief. That can often be enough to tip the scales in your favor, especially with the skill level of the average WvW thief..
You need situational awareness. Constantly pan around. You can see thieves coming, them being able to stealth to close the gap should be no excuse. When you see the little house thing, that’s an easy give away to position yourself differently the next 10 seconds. Same thing for the puffs of smoke from blinding powder or black powder.

Good luck

Some advice to add.

Stick with a group. Use focus as offhand to get some swiftness, if you stay close, others will buff you as well. Curtain can also be useful to pull people in group v group situations.

Use a staff. Chaos storm is a great combo field and chaos armor helps with surviving. Phase retreat can help with running by selecting a target before using it.

Using CC is the best thing you can do anyway. Your damage will suck, your survivability will be laughable. Try and contribute by using smart utilities like null field, veil and portal. Elite should be time warp. Good thing mesmers have such awesome utility. You can actually add a lot at such a low lvl.

And get blink. This will help you to stay in the back of huge fights.

Good luck!

Pyroatheist.9031:

Basically, you need the other warden’s reflection bubble duration to fit into the recharge of the first warden’s skill, so that the coverage is continuous.

Clear point, and it’s a big one.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Also, another key of this build is versatility. I don’t always use staff, by any stretch of the imagination. I often ditch staff for greatsword/sword+pistol or sword+focus. For example, in the jade maw fractal, I want no projectiles, so no staff there. In other situations where I would rather have the boon stripping of the greatsword with decent ranged dd I’ll use the sword and pistol instead of staff. By taking 20 points in chaos, you lose some of that versatility in exchange for lowering cooldowns on one of your weapons.

Haven’t thought about it this way, and another point taken. Reading your guide I understood most versatility in this build comes from the 30 in Inspiration, but it’s just the ability to use any weapon really.

Gonna try out you phantasm build in PvP. Seems fun. Thanks for sharing, and for the clarifications!

Pyroatheist.9031:

The iWardens have the longest recharge attack time of any phantasms, and thus are affected the most by phantasmal haste. With phantasmal haste, you will have 100% uptime on projectile reflects with just 2 wardens. Additionally, with warden’s feedback traited, you can do the following 2 rotations:

Warden —> temporal curtain --> warden spins again —> 2nd warden = 100% proj reflects
Warden --> feedback —> warden spins again --> 2nd warden = 100% proj reflects

Without phantasmal haste, 100% reflects are not possible with just 2 wardens, and this hurts severely in places that are projectile heavy. In addition to allowing that, phantasmal haste also increases the dps on all land-based phantasms with the exception of the swordsman, and that ends up being a pretty decent dps increase, especially considering the more attacks it can fit in before dying, the more efficient the skill is.

I might be missing something here, but according to the wiki, the timing without haste seems sufficient to accomplish this. The Warden attacks once every 8,07 seconds untraited, with his attack reflecting for 5. So you need 3,07 seconds to overlap for 100% reflection..? Or am I reading the wiki wrong? Is it in fact 8,07 seconds between the 5 second reflects?

Other then that, I agree that you would be sacrificing some DPS, but that would be countered somewhat by the ability to summon Warlocks faster. Also using Chaos Storm/Armor more often will help you’re entire party (DPS-wise but also with surviving, which in itself is increasing DPS because you can focus on DPS more). The added survivability in total for the 10/10/20/25/5 will help with focusing on DPS more. And as a plus, you can change some pieces to Berserker’s because you have 200 more toughness. That leaves room for something like the -40% condition food.

Have to say though, awesome build man, again. Perhaps my skill level just begs me to alter it slightly. I would say ‘my version’ is a little more novice friendly.

BTW, I read somewhere you stated you have a PvP phantasm build also? I’m digging this phantasm stuff, so is there a read-up on it somewhere?

Ryuujin.8236:

Considering mesmers already have 2 ranged twohanders (Staff, greatsword), 4 offhands and yet only 1 viable mainhand (lolsceptre…)

What we really DON’T need is another ranged twohander, what we need is a half decent mainhand ranged weapon… like a pistol (Or, a total revamp of the sceptre)

Total bullkitten, scepter rocks hard.

I agree that longbow classes aren’t much fun. But who cares. It’s a bow.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Phantasmal haste is key to being able to quickly stack 100% reflects by using wardens. It does increase dps from duelists and warlocks, but but the utility of wardens is severely diminished without it.

Can you explain this a bit more? I’ve been looking at this build as well, and thought of a similar variant (10/10/20/25/5), to drop haste but keep fury (you’ll be switching out GS for SW/FC often anyway).

But I don’t know if I fully understand what you’re saying here. Do you mean that with the reduction you get the attack to be once every 6.77 seconds, and with the 5 seconds of reflection almost 100% uptime?

It’s not possible.

The simple reason for that is confusion is extremely situational in PvE, and thus far inferior to direct damage.

For a good confusion build, check out the ‘find your build’ thread. Scepter/Torch and Staff is awesome for such a build. You just have to decide wheter to go toughness and precision (so knights/rabid) or power and vitality (carrion). Both can work.

Just buy a green/blue set whenever you feel like it. Buying a complete set including runes should never cost you more then 10 silver up to level 80. You can resell the set for 3-5 silver, so buying a new set like every 10 levels would cost you 35s. That way you always have good gear. Buying rares before you hit lvl 80 is totally not worth it IMO. It’s not going to speed things up to justify spending the cash/karma. Save your currency till your 80, so you can buy exo’s right away.

Oh and one more thing, don’t sell your salvage materials. You will need them sooner or later, and rebuying them is going to cost you… Instead just do harts/map completion. That way, your never short on cash for gear or trait booklets.

Winds.3087:

Esplen.3940:

Because clearly getting a Sigil of Air on your armor is not worth 20 of a stat.

6000-7000 damage 6-rune is definitely worth dropping 20 of a stat, unless they nerfed it too.

Depends on your build for the damage to be significant.

Daendur.2357:

Rizzy.8293:

Remove stealth, give high hp and allow rifle wielding :>

it is called warrior.

you have multiple options for pve not requiring stealth.
move on

But why can’t it be functional in pve?

..you plant C4 on your twin and blow him up.

Aervius.2016:

With how much I use Shortbow, I’d be convinced that I’m really a Ranger with awesome melee. Besides, I’ve grown tired of Anet nerfing all the non-gimmick builds for our favorite profession, so I’ve just slotted myself into the mold they seem to want us all in anyway.

So you can just say you’re a Ranger.

But I agree, the way thief is now, it’s a mess. I use HK.
Playing Mesmer or even Warrior just offers a LOT more versatility. When HK works again, I’ll be roaming again though, I bet.

Devildoc.6721:

It’s about undoing a prior nerf, not getting a buff.

What you’re saying will effectively be the same as what I’m saying. I’m just leaving the option for them to buff PW in another way. The damage can be upped, sure, but they can also buff the way the skill works. Either way, it needs work.

Rissou.7213:

So Executioner > Hidden Killer once you reach around 63-66% Crit-Chance (and that’s with berzerker and valk gear, using gear without crit damage (Knights) will move the results so Executioner is better.)

Do you mean that if you use knights gear (Power/toughness/vitality), Executioner is better than hidden killer?

Yes. HK focusses on crit purely, while Executioner also boosts non-crit damage. So HK takes a bigger hit then Exec when you have lower crit damage.

And PVT gear is called Soldier’s. Knight’s is Precision, Toughness and Power.

Increased supply would be best for any class, IMO. To start out with at least. After getting that maxed out, choose whichever fits your playstyle. None of the rank abilities have very game-changing effects anyway, apart from the increased supply that is.

gravestorm.2580:

Prepatch i run duel surv build, it was like this:
from one cnd to another cnd (3 sec) i could take 3-7k dmg in my face (got 16k total), in between dodges and daze.
Now its 4 secks, i m taking 5-9k dmg, and i dont survive long naf to pull of my heal.
So +25% reval time is more then +25% of dmg i need to deal with.
And plz remamber that thief got one of the lowest starting hp pul.
Lets see what els. Oh: i start my combo from invis-tacktikal strike from behind(s/d), that i whant to do 3 strike series of auto and than i whant to go back to invis for
repeat. i dont whant to spend my time on a lame #1 sword first-of-a-chain. It would’n be such a problem if a could use flanking strike efficiently.
More than that: less stealth means less move speed, less hp regn from 30 SA trait, less dmg from bs
AND it affects all the builds since its a core mechanic.

I can see what you’re saying to be bad for you, but put yourself in the position of your victim. They get hit for way more then half their HP when you BS-chain-CnD, without seeing you coming. If they are good, you ‘only’ receive 3-7k, let’s mediate that at 5k damage before restealthing. Thats less then 1/3rd…. The skill you will need to down a player like this doesn’t compare well to the skill your opponent needs to survive your burst and kill you in between stealths.

That being said, when you (and your opponent) reach a higher level of skill, it becomes a lot harder for the thief and a lot easier for your opponent. The 1 second extra reveal only speeds up that process.

Still don’t think that warrants foregoing SA completely. I wonder if reveal would have been 4 seconds from the start, if people would just have never used SA… Doubtful.

wookie.8934:

You do realize he has 25 stacks of might? Right?

You also realize that warriors versus most thieves is an easy kill for a thief? Right?

You do realize that 100b in SPVP is laughable? Right?

Please…

You do realize that glass cannon warrior can actually stay in close range the whole time spamming 1 and 2 for that insane damage, right?

You realize when the thief does that he gets downed in 2 hits, right?

You realize thieves and warriors are not comparable in PvE, right? Like, at all?

You’re complaning about 100b in sPvP. It is laughable. But does that mean thieves can’t be viable in PvE, because warriors are crap in pvp? What kind of reasoning is that? Should we all just play warriors in PvE and thieves in pvp?

Warriors need a pvp buff, true. Not another PvE buff like this patch. It really does seem Anet wants us to play warriors in PvE only (and only warriors). The quickness nerf hit them more then any other class. I mean, even the prolonged duration is bad news for the warrior. It was already hard for them to burst something down with 100% increased speed, now that will be harder, and they will be vulnerable that much longer……………….

I got bored with my warrior the second I realized it’s just a farmcow in this game, no offense.

Adaneshade.2409:

Doesn’t matter, ele (or any bunker) gets flattened before chance to react. Since I’m S/D I prevent revives with daze :-P.

I bet it’s fun to use man, nothing bout that. Being creative is a good thing.

But saying you can pwn a d/d ele if you use this build and team up with a gc gs warrior doesn’t mean anything, really. 2v1 should always be won, if the skill lvls of all 3 players involved are the same. If anything changes in that equation, then your statement loses any viability as to testament to the strength of your build.

That being said, your build can off course work very well in 2v2 or more large scale settings.

Still, I wonder what the partner of the D/D ele is doing, and I’m not talking about rezzing.

Adaneshade.2409:

I created a tanky venom share build that is absolute ridiculousness when you team up with a GS warrior. Talking locking D/D ele down so hard they don’t budge til they die.

And what does the ele’s teammate do?

I’m running a HK D/D build (WvW only), but not now lol. HK is not working as stated before.

Other then that, I won’t be changing too much. Apart from SR and SoS, I switch between blinding powder and shadowstep for my third utility. I guess it will be shadowstep more often. The extra second revealed after an attack is not that bad, although when facing a serious opponent it can make all the difference. I don’t use Basilisk, so that doesn’t affect me.

Edit: I don’t know why people abandon Shadow Arts as a trait line. Restealthing is still possible like it used to be, so healing in stealth is still almost as viable as it was, barring the extra second being revealed if you do attack.

If they will nerve HK in any way, there will be no reason whatsoever not to use Executioner instead. I’ll probably quite thief altogether then, because I’m not interested in playing 25/30/0/0/15 instagib.

Another Mug victim. Seek help.

Aberrant.6749:

Both took hits lets not make this a who got hit harder convo. Both classes are kittened right now and need fixing.

You’re right, I just can’t help myself whenever I see somebody talking about warriors like that (playing War, Thief and Mesmer myself).

Thief is mostly screwed in PvE right now though. PvP is more or less ok if you ask me.

kaazdinasty.8120:

how dare you say that the warrior was hurt with this nerf! thier banners got twice as strong, kick skill got buffed and quickness was extended for 1 sec. we got reveal and basilisk venom was nerfed! our main source of damage got nerfed! I have a main thief and a dungeon warrior with witch I recently joined spvp. I got supriced how easy this class is it’s totally overpowered in both pve (reason why I roled one for dungeons) but even more in spvp its insane, there is only competition from other warriors.

Warrior still sucks most in pvp. If you are succesful with it, your opponents are most likely not very good. To be clear, I´m talking about 1v1.

And yes, the quickness nerf hits warriors the hardest, because their most viable option, even though it was already quite bad, has lost it’s potential by half.

People use OP like it doesn’t mean anything these days.

Apart from this, thief did take a big hit this patch, most likely the biggest hit of all. I agree with PW needing a buff.

Yeah, just read it! Apart from making me laugh and appealing to my lazy character, quite a useful guide!

I’m all set and decided how to proceed. Thanks all!

Wow dude, you should put this together i a guide somewhere. Thanks for the effort!

Greatsword seems like a good choice indeed. Do you know anything about this ‘beam’ function I keep hearing about?

II’ve got two other 80s so sword focus shouldnt be a problem.

Thanks again!